A page file that Windows resizes mid-game causes hitches and the odd crash. Set a fixed size on the SSD and remove the copies on slower drives.
Set a **fixed page file** on the fastest SSD - 16 GB is enough up to 32 GB of RAM - and remove the page file from every other drive. A file that grows during a game allocates space exactly when you notice it.
Open **System Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory** and note whether **Automatically manage paging file size for all drives** is ticked.
System Properties > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual memoryUntick **Automatically manage paging file size for all drives**. Without this the custom sizes below are greyed out.
Select the SSD, choose **Custom size** and set initial and maximum to the same value in MB. A page file that cannot grow never allocates mid-game.
Initial size: 16384 MB
Maximum size: 16384 MBSelect each remaining drive, choose **No paging file** and press **Set**. Otherwise Windows can put part of the file on a slow hard disk.
After the reboot the Memory tab in Task Manager shows the commit charge, and the page file size is readable in PowerShell. The allocated size must match what you set.
Get-CimInstance Win32_PageFileUsage | Select-Object Name, AllocatedBaseSize, CurrentUsageHitches during alt-tab and big loads should be gone. If a game still reports an out-of-memory error, raise both values to 24576 MB rather than letting Windows manage it again.
The maximum is below what your workload needs. Raise the maximum, keep the initial value equal to it, and reboot.
A fixed file cannot grow past its limit. Check the commit charge under load; if it is close to the limit, add 8 GB to both values.
A 16 GB page file is the sensible ceiling for 32 GB of RAM. Move games to another drive instead of shrinking the file further.
That is asset streaming, not the page file. Look at shader compilation and the drive's queue depth instead.
No. It removes hitches and the occasional out-of-memory crash. A fixed page file does not make the GPU faster.
That works, but keep exactly one and on the faster drive. Splitting it across drives is what causes the worst case.
Set **Automatically manage paging file size for all drives** back on, press Set and reboot. Windows then recreates its own page file on the system drive.
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